Rare Color Footage Of 1964 Tokyo Paralympics Found
Rare color footage of the 1964 Tokyo Paralympics has been discovered at the home of a former hospital worker.
The video runs 26 minutes and 40 seconds and begins with the athletes' parade. This is followed by footage of wheelchair basketball and swimming and athletes competing in events we no longer see today.
The video indicates that it was made by what was then the health and welfare ministry and a sanatorium.
It was found near Tokyo at the home of Kimio Hosoya, 88, who worked for years at the sanatorium.
The 16-millimeter negative had no audio, but parts of the same video accompanied by narration were found among films in the sanatorium's archives.
The video introduces data on foreign athletes, saying 63 percent of them own a car and 49 percent have a job.
It also mentions that most Japanese Paralympic athletes are hospital or sanatorium patients, while the foreign athletes are working members of society.
Fumio Morooka, professor emeritus at Sophia University, describes the color footage as highly precious. He says he wants people who see the video to look back on the 56 years since the Games.
